People think they know Ed Gein. They don’t. They know Norman Bates. They know Leatherface. They know that terrifying guy from The Silence of the Lambs who wanted to make a suit out of skin. But the actual human being—the quiet, stuttering handyman from Plainfield, Wisconsin—is somehow even weirder than the movies. Now that Ryan Murphy has set his sights on the "Mad Butcher of Plainfield" for the third installment of his anthology, everyone is talking about Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story and whether we really need another deep look into the abyss.
Honestly? We probably do.
Because the real story isn't just about the gore. It’s about a small town that refused to see a monster living right in its backyard. It’s about a man who was so psychologically shattered by his mother that he forgot how to be a person. Charlie Hunnam is taking on the lead role, and the pressure is on. He has to play a man who wasn't a "supervillain" in the traditional sense, but a broken, delusional recluse who did things that still make seasoned detectives sick to their stomachs.
The Plainfield Ghoul: What Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story Has to Get Right
If the show focuses only on the shocks, it’ll miss the point. Gein wasn't a prolific serial killer in the vein of Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. He only officially killed two people: Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. That’s it. But it's what he did after people died that changed American horror forever.
He was a grave robber. A "resurrectionist," as some old texts call it.
Gein spent years digging up bodies from local cemeteries, specifically looking for women who reminded him of his deceased mother, Augusta. He wasn't just grieving. He was trying to literally crawl back into her life. He wanted to peel off their skin and wear it. That sounds like a cheap slasher movie plot, but for the sheriff who walked into Gein’s farmhouse in November 1957, it was a waking nightmare. They found bowls made of skulls. They found a wastebasket made of human skin. They found Bernice Worden hanging from the rafters like a deer.
The Augusta Factor
You can't talk about Ed Gein without talking about Augusta. She was a religious fanatic who hated the world and taught her sons that all women—except her—were "vessels of sin." When she died in 1945, Ed lost his only anchor. He sealed off her bedroom like a shrine. He let the rest of the house rot into a literal trash heap while her room stayed pristine.
This is the psychological meat of Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story. It’s a study in isolation. Plainfield in the 1950s was a place where people minded their own business. Ed was the weird neighbor who helped you fix your fence or watched your kids. People joked about him. They’d ask, "Hey Ed, got any fresh trophies?" and he’d just giggle.
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He wasn't joking.
Why Charlie Hunnam is a Bold Choice for the Lead
When the news broke that Charlie Hunnam would play Gein, the internet had thoughts. Hunnam is... well, he’s a leading man. He’s fit. He’s charismatic. Ed Gein was a slight, balding man with a high-pitched voice and a vacant stare. But Ryan Murphy’s Monster series has a habit of "beautifying" these killers, which is a valid criticism.
However, if you look at Hunnam’s work in Papi**llon or The Lost City of Z, you see an actor who can do "haunted" really well. He can do "desperate." To make Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story work, he has to disappear. He can't be Jax Teller in a flannel shirt. He has to capture that specific Wisconsin "aw-shucks" demeanor that masked a complete break from reality.
The real Gein didn't think he was evil. When he was interrogated, he was remarkably cooperative. He just didn't see the world the way we do. To him, the bodies in the graveyard were just materials. He was a craftsman of the macabre.
Breaking the "Slasher" Mold
Most people expect a horror show. But the best version of this story is a tragedy. Not a tragedy for Ed—he was a murderer—but a tragedy for the community. The 1950s are often romanticized as this era of white picket fences and safety. Gein shattered that. He proved that the person sitting next to you at the diner could be keeping a box of human noses in his kitchen.
The production needs to nail the atmosphere. It needs to feel cold. Wisconsin winters are brutal, and that isolation played a massive role in Gein’s descent. You get snowed in. You stop seeing people. You start listening to the voices in your head.
The Legal and Ethical Tightrope
There’s always a backlash with these shows. The families of the victims are often still around. Bernice Worden’s son was the one who pointed the police toward Gein. Imagine seeing your family's worst trauma turned into a binge-watchable Sunday night event.
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Netflix has been criticized for this before, especially with the Dahmer series. The "Monster" brand is lucrative, but it’s radioactive. The show has to balance the historical facts with the need for drama without becoming exploitative. It’s a hard line to walk.
One thing that might help is the shift in focus. While Dahmer was about systemic failure and police negligence, Gein is more about the failure of "neighborliness." It’s about the secrets kept in small towns. If the writers focus on the investigation and the psychological fallout for the townspeople, it might feel less like "murder porn" and more like a historical post-mortem.
The Legacy of the "Mad Butcher"
Before Gein, we didn't really have the concept of the "psycho" in pop culture. Robert Bloch lived near Plainfield. He heard the stories. He wrote the book Psycho. Hitchcock made the movie. Later, Tobe Hooper used Gein’s farmhouse as the inspiration for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Even Thomas Harris’s creation of Buffalo Bill was a composite of several killers, but the "skin suit" aspect was pure Gein.
We are essentially watching the origin story of modern horror. Every time you see a masked killer or a "creepy house on the hill," you’re seeing the ghost of Ed Gein. Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story is just the latest iteration of a fascination that has lasted seventy years.
The Reality of the "Trophies"
Let's get specific, because the details are where the real horror lies. The police didn't just find bodies. They found furniture. This is the part that usually gets censored or turned into cartoonish gore, but the reality was clinical. Gein was organized in his madness.
- He had a collection of "leggings" made from human skin.
- He created masks from the faces of women.
- He even made a belt out of nipples.
This wasn't just killing. It was an attempt to physically replace the women he had lost, or perhaps to become them. This "gender dysphoria" theory has been debated by psychologists for decades, though most modern experts agree it was more likely a manifestation of his extreme "Mommy issues" rather than a true desire to transition. He wanted to be his mother so she wouldn't be dead anymore.
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What This Means for the Future of True Crime
True crime is changing. Audiences are getting tired of the same old "police procedural" format. They want the "why." They want to see the cracks in the American Dream.
Netflix Monster The Ed Gein Story is likely going to be a massive hit, but it also signals a trend toward "prestige horror." It’s not enough to just show the blood. You have to show the rot underneath. You have to show the social conditions that allowed a man to rob graves for a decade without anyone noticing.
Was he a monster? Yes. Was he a product of his environment? Also yes.
The show will likely explore the 1957 trial, where Gein was found "not guilty by reason of insanity." He spent the rest of his life in a mental institution. By all accounts, he was a model patient. He was polite. He was helpful. He died of cancer in 1984, a quiet old man who happened to be the most influential killer in American history.
How to Approach the Show When it Drops
If you’re planning on watching, go in with your eyes open. This isn't a fun slasher. It’s a look at a very real, very dark part of our history.
- Read the facts first. Check out Deviant by Harold Schechter. It’s widely considered the definitive book on Gein and sticks to the primary sources.
- Watch the documentaries. There are plenty of interviews with the original responding officers that provide a much grimmer picture than any TV show can.
- Separate the art from the reality. Remember that while Charlie Hunnam is a great actor, the real Ed Gein was a man who destroyed families and desecrated the dead.
The show is a piece of entertainment, but the history is a warning. It’s a reminder that the most dangerous people aren't the ones screaming in the streets. They’re the ones who offer to help you carry your groceries, all while hiding a world of darkness behind a shy, flickering smile.
Don't expect a happy ending. There isn't one. There’s just the cold, hard ground of a Wisconsin cemetery and the knowledge that sometimes, the things we fear most are the things we ignore.
Actionable Insights for True Crime Fans:
If you want to understand the impact of the Gein case beyond the screen, look into how the 1957 investigation changed forensic psychology. This case was a turning point in how law enforcement viewed "organized" vs "disorganized" offenders. You can also research the "Plainfield police reports" which are available in various historical archives if you want to see the inventory of the house for yourself—though be warned, it's not for the faint of heart. Finally, compare the Netflix portrayal with the 1974 film Deranged, which many historians feel captures the "vibe" of the Gein farmhouse more accurately than the stylized versions we see today.